March 2017

The Trump administration made clear on Friday that it intends to shift away from the previous two administrations’ stances on human rights in the Middle East, in order to prioritize the U.S. national interest by focusing on counterterrorism efforts in the region. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer stated that the United States understands the “political reality” of the situation in Syria. This corroborates earlier statements on Thursday by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that the “longer term status of President Assad will be decided by the Syrian people” and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley that “our priority is no longer to sit there and focus on getting…
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Seventy years ago, liberals were duped by the “victims” they formed a group around to defend. In 1947, The Committee for The First Amendment was organized by liberal Hollywood in response to Congress subpoenaing ten members of the film community to answer questions about their Communist affiliations.
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Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho, a founding member of the Freedom Caucus and a vocal critic of the failed American Health Care Act (AHCA), hit out at Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger on Friday after the latter released an scathing op-ed in the New York Times titled “How the Freedom Caucus Is Undermining the G.O.P.” In the op-ed, Kinzinger praised President Trump’s “good faith,” and accused the Freedom Caucus of “[refusing] to let the will of the people advance on the House floor” and “undermining the Republican agenda, and our party as a whole.”
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Public policy expert Tom Nichols recently wrote an article entitled, “The Death of Expertise.” In it, he writes at some length about his fear of “a Google-fueled, Wikipedia-based, blog-sodden collapse of any division between professionals and laymen.” Expertise, Mr. Nichols explains, is being replaced by “a sanctimonious insistence that every person has a right to his or her own opinion,” which in his words is both “silly” and “dangerous.” For Mr. Nichols, it’s silly because “without real experts, everyone is an expert on everything.” It’s dangerous to him because you can’t have a bunch of uneducated proles running around making…
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On March 29, 2017, the George Washington University Law School’s branch of the Federalist Society hosted a debate between Professor John Yoo of Berkeley Law and Professor Jonathan Turley of GW Law. The topic of the debate was the delegation of war powers under the United States Constitution. Yoo is best known for the now infamous memo he wrote as a member of the Justice Department in the early 2000s that argued in favor of the authority of the executive to use “advanced interrogation techniques” on enemy combatants. Turley is best known as a civil libertarian who has represented members…
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The attacks keep coming. Murder or maiming by Muslims living among us is an almost daily occurrence in the West. The latest was knifeman Khalid Masood, who plowed a car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, London, and then proceeded to slash at them with a 12-inch blade. Immoral media counted five dead, with the killer. In addition to the four murdered, 50 people were injured. Promptly did Prime Minister Theresa May get her Churchill on: “[W]e are not afraid and our resolve will never waver in the face of terrorism.” How easy it is to wax fat from the safety…
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President Donald Trump is continuing his assault on the House Freedom Caucus after ‘Obamacare 2.0’ failed to receive a vote last week. However, the President is receiving serious backlash on social media from legislators as well as concerned constituents regarding his comments. This morning, President Trump tweeted the following, “The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!”
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If you love sports, you need to read this article. Everyone across the political spectrum should be opposed to publicly financed stadiums. The Oakland Raiders have recently announced that they are moving to Las Vegas. Their new stadium will be partly paid for with $750 million in public financing. If you hate sports, you will love this article. Show this to everyone you know, because your tax dollars shouldn′t be used to pay for other people′s entertainment. Unless you spend all of your free time in the library or at the park, your fun is either paid for by corporate…
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By and large, British author George Orwell addressed his essays and novels to the English-speaking world. During the war, he wrote a “London Letter,” about the political situation in England, to the readers of the anti-Stalinist American journal, Partisan Review. Even his stint as a BBC broadcaster with programs designed for Indian consumption were to audiences who spoke English. But there was one instance in which Orwell wrote to a non-English-speaking audience, the Ukrainian readers of Animal Farm. Orwell wrote a preface to the Ukrainian edition that is remarkable in what he revealed about himself. Something about writing for a…
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Leftist academic Noam Chomsky is a staunch critic of American imperialism and corporatism, but that still didn’t stop him from endorsing Hillary Clinton for President last year. Having failed in his Hillary advocacy, Chomsky is resorting to the conspiracy mongering that he has frequently derided throughout his career as a fear-mongering ploy against President Trump. “In order to maintain his popularity, the Trump administration will have to try to find some means of rallying the support and changing the discourse from the policies that they are carrying out, which are basically a wrecking ball, to something else… We shouldn’t put…
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Judge Andrew Napolitano’s future as a FOX News analyst looked to be in serious jeopardy after he alleged that Trump was likely wiretapped by British intelligence. Just a week later, the pull-no-punches libertarian jurist is back on the network and offering no apologies regarding the work that facilitated his brief suspension. As reported by the Liberty Conservative, Napolitano was given an indefinite leave of absence on Mar. 20 after the Trump Administration referenced his claims, sparking a national firestorm. Despite the controversy, Napolitano refused to back down nine days later during his return appearance on America’s Newsroom.
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President Donald Trump today appeared to declare war on the members of the Freedom Caucus, stating on Twitter that “the Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2o18.” While it is still unclear what the President meant by his remarks, the fact that he chose to group the Freedom Caucus in with the Democrats suggests that he intends to support primary challenges to Freedom Caucus members in the upcoming 2018 mid-term elections.
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In the Vietnam era, when the “New Hollywood,” shorthand for sixties’ leftists taking charge of the movies, lionized the Old Left in films like The Way We Were and The Front, they did so with the script used by American Stalinists during the early days of the Cold War; that those blacklisted were merely innocent New Dealers in “a hurry,” who were unfortunately caught in a crunch when the political climate shifted from FDR liberalism to anti-New Deal rightism. An example of this was The Way We Were, a moist treatment of Hollywood Stalinists, and the vicious treatment afforded them…
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In our age of terrorist bombings, intentionally designed for “collateral damage,”, one would assume that the Left would holster their bizarre views of terrorists as either misunderstood victims or patriots. Not so with liberal actor Robert Redford, who back in publicity junkets for his film, The Company You Keep (2012), expressed sympathy for the Weathermen, an ultra-violent Maoist-worshipping terrorist group from the 1960s.
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During his presidency, John F. Kennedy was accused by the far right of being a communist appeaser at best, a secret sympathizer at worst. Now, thanks to the release of his diaries from the 1930s, it may be more valid to accuse JFK of admiration of fascism, however youthful the passion. In a series of diary entries, the future president recorded complimentary references to Nazis during a 1937 visit to Nazi Germany. He found that fascism to be “the right thing for Germany,” and regarding its brutish features, he rhetorically stated, “what are the evils of fascism compared to communism?”
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Yeah, you’re probably scratching your head, aren’t you? Despite the ambiguity of the title of this op-ed, the comments you are about to read throughout are listed in an effort to illustrate the damaging state of the First Amendment. A few days ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit concluded in one of the most obscure federal lawsuits in recent years that government regulators in the State of Florida violated the first amendment rights of an all-natural dairy producer in a rural part of the state. Specifically, the dairy is known as Ocheesee Creamery and the lawsuit…
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When his activist wife criticized FDR for not addressing the plight of blacks, the president always stated that to do so would lose him crucial Southern Congressional support for his New Deal measures. A perfect case in point for Roosevelt’s dilemma was personified by Congressman John E. Rankin of Mississippi. Rankin, who served for sixteen terms, from 1920-1952, was proof one could be both economically liberal and virulently racist; and his “Yellow Dog Democrat” constituency, who swore never to vote for Republicans because of Reconstruction, reflected both of Rankin’s political tendencies.
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The House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform approved a measure today that would audit the Federal Reserve, in spite of intense opposition from Democratic legislators and global banking sector. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) introduced H.R. 24, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2017, more commonly referred to as “Audit the Fed.” It is the copy of legislation that Massie introduced in the past, based on Rep. Ron Paul’s signature bill that he introduced repeatedly over the course of his Congressional career.
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The Trump Administration is escalating its presence in Northern Iraq to include over 300 additional U.S. troops from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division in an attempt to beat back the presence of ISIS in the city. The move is slated to be temporary, but no timeline for withdrawal has been given. A Mar. 27 Military Times report on the escalation stated, “The paratroopers comprise two infantry companies and a route-clearance platoon from the division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, according to a U.S. defense official, who spoke to Military Times on the condition of anonymity.” They were scheduled to depart for…
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When Lucille Ball was accused of being a Communist at the height of her fame in the 1950s, she pleaded contextual circumstances. She cited her pressure by her Party-line uncle, but also noted that “in those days it was considered shameful to be a Republican.” And indeed it was, even in Hollywood, which was presided over by rock-ribbed studio heads. To subscribe to any type of anti-New Deal conservatism in Hollywood was to invite charges of fascism from Hollywood reds, who were at the high tide of their influence in the 1930s, and especially during World War II.
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The closeted Roy Cohn called him less a homosexual and more a “voyeur,” getting his jollies by listening the sex tapes of political leaders he acquired through FBI wiretaps. Oliver Stone disagreed, having him in his laughable Nixon (1995) practically french-kissing the help. The wife of a mobster provided information of him in drag in a hotel room with Cohn present: “[He was] wearing a fluffy black dress, very fluffy, with flounces, and lace stockings and high heels, and a black curly wig. He had make-up on and false eyelashes. It was a very short skirt, and he was sitting…
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It is a given that today the Left dominates the historical profession. And accordingly, they edit out any inconvenient facts favoring the other side to achieve their liberal slant. In the process, they adopt the very Manichean view of history they accuse the Right of fostering; or in the words of their recently departed President, the view that the Republicans are “wrong,” and “we are right.” Hence, there is a temptation for the meager batch of conservative historians to counter-attack using the same Manichean model.
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After the Freedom Caucus stopped House Majority Speaker Paul Ryan’s health care bill from even receiving a floor vote, conservatives and libertarians were elated, but serious consequences may be on the way if White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon’s words are any indicator. Conservatives and libertarians hoping their health care victory would result in Trump embracing their agenda have reason to be concerned. Some very choice words made by White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon regarding the Freedom Caucus to the mainstream media cast serious doubt on the likelihood of an alliance forming between limited government advocates and the White…
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In his lifetime, George Orwell diagnosed the symptom of leftists and their power worship of Stalin as partly stemming from having no contact with reality; specifically no contact with the working classes they supposedly champion. Despite the considerable numbers of writer/intellectuals who supported Stalin, Orwell never had to contend with those who took over the universities. This feature, so part of our time, is addressed, Orwell-like, by British conservative intellectual Roger Scruton toward the intellectuals of a New Left whose control of the language of political discourse (a particular beef of Orwell’s) is chiefly responsible for their takeover of academia.
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The late great Christopher Hitchens was nothing if not surprising. To cite one example of his iconoclasm, Hitchens, an almost life-long supporter of Leon Trotsky, did not apply an ideological litmus test when picking his favorite novelists. For topping the list were fascist sympathizers such as Evelyn Waugh, and gruff Tories like George MacDonald Fraser. With the latter, Hitchens had, despite obvious political differences, a kinship with Fraser because of both men’s dislike of political correctness. Fraser’s novels centered around an amoral, cowardly, selfishly-indulgent, traitorous soldier in the mid-19th Century named Harry Flashman, who Fraser appropriated the bully character in…
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One of the most insightful observations made by Sun Tzu in his seminal masterwork, The Art of War, is the following: “When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.” Tu Mu was more specific in his elaboration on the point; the ancient Chinese poet said the enemy must be made to think “that there is a road to safety, and thus prevent his fighting with the courage of despair.” The beauty of Sun Tzu’s tome is in its timelessness; the succinct profundity of his proverbs is as relevant today as it…
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Myron Ebell, a libertarian policy hero and the environmental chief of the Competitive Enterprise Institute struck a chord with me when he characterized Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as being a part of the “swamp” of the beltway. And, frankly, I agree with him. Before we go on any further, I went to the national stage to advocate for the confirmation of Secretary Tillerson during his contested confirmation phase. This is also the case for many of my conservative and libertarian brothers and sisters who sought out an accountable and steadfast diplomat to negotiate on our nation’s behalf.
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From their plush apartments, over groaning dinner tables, pseudo-intellectuals have the luxury of depicting squalor and sickness as idyllic, primordially peaceful and harmonious. After all, when the affluent relinquish their earthly possessions to return to the simple life, it is always with aid of sophisticated technology and the option to be air-lifted to a hospital if the need arises. Is there any wonder, then, that “the stereotype of colonial history” has been perpetuated by the relatively well-to-do intellectual elite? Theories of exploitation, Marxism for one, originated with Western intellectuals, not with African peasants. It is this clique alone that could…
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In one of those ironies history throws at us, Lee Harvey Oswald’s failed attempt on the life of the ultra-Rightist General Edwin Walker eight months before the Kennedy assassination ended Walker’s importance. Don Delillo caught Walker’s descent into mediocrity best in his JFK assassination novel, Libra. In the novel, one of the most bizarre suspects in the Kennedy assassination, the body-hairless, ultra-Rightist David Ferrie tells Oswald to forget about continuing his assassination attempts on Walker: “No one listens to Walker anymore. Your missed bullet finished him more surely than a clean hit. It left him hanging in the twilight. He…
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I‘m about to drop a thesis that some might find…a bit controversial. And that thesis is—contrary to the popular wisdom, with its talk of “invisible knapsacks” (my featured image being a visible knapsack) and “stereotype threat”, stereotypes may, in fact, be beneficial! And not in the typical sense of stereotype formation having evolved as a quick ‘n dirty way to characterize a group of people when a more in-depth sociological profile is not an option in order to determine whether they are friend or foe.
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Before the Soviet Union imploded in 1989, liberals denounced conservatives as anti-Russian paranoids and supporters of emergency measures, even martial law. But that was then. Since the election of Donald Trump, liberals, especially of the Left Coast Hollywood variety, have peddled anti-Russian conspiracy theories involving Vladimir Putin supposedly getting Trump elected, and because of this foreign “assistance,” have asserted that Trump is an “illegitimate” president.
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Infowars founder Alex Jones, best known for his bombastic pronouncements of government conspiracy, is apologizing for his coverage of PizzaGate, a theory deduced from Wikileaks disclosures which allege that Comet Ping Pong, run by the well-connected James Alefantis, was the hub of an elite child sex-trafficking network. “I want our viewers and listeners to know that we regret any negative impact our commentaries may have had on Mr. Alefantis, Comet Ping Pong, or its employees,” Jones said. “We apologize to the extent our commentaries could be construed as negative statements about Mr. Alefantis or Comet Ping Pong, and we hope…
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President Donald Trump gave German Chancellor Angela Merkel a $300 billion invoice for money her country owes the United States for military protection. The $300 billion invoice, which Trump reportedly handed over to Merkel during private talks in Washington, was described as “brilliant” by Jason Kessler of Unity and Security for America, a non-interventionist grassroots lobbying group. “We’re happy that the President of the United States is finally doing something to put America first,” said Kessler. “By giving Merkel the $300 billion invoice, Trump is highlighting the billions of tax dollars that Americans wasted defending countries like Germany that refuse…
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In the film Lawrence of Arabia (1962), a firm believer in the British Empire grudgingly compliments the decidedly anti-Colonial Lawrence on his military performance in capturing a previously impregnable Turkish port; it “doesn’t matter what his motives were; it was a brilliant bit of soldiering.” This phrase perfectly encapsulates the soldierly view of SS Special Forces leader Otto Skorzeny, although his motives were much more detestable than Lawrence’s – the former wanting to help the Arabs build their own government free of British control. By contrast, Skorzeny never gave up the Nazi dream, aiding in the escape of several SS…
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In the 1920s to the late 1930s, Ernest Hemingway and leftist author John Dos Passos were the best of friends. But something happened toward the end of the Depression decade. Both men parted company, Hemingway angrily, and Dos Passos, shocked, and never regained their friendship. That “something” was Jose Robles.
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In The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987), Tom Wolfe’s British journalist uses his accent and his British sense of humor to cadge meals from his spellbound American colleagues. By the 1960s to 1980s, being a spellbinding conversationalist was all actor/director Orson Welles had left. Because of his excesses (relying on style rather than substance in his films; an almost self-destructive refusal to tailor his films for mass audiences not leaning to the avant-garde; self-destructively taking on studio heads) no studio would touch him.
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President Donald Trump today hammered the Freedom Caucus and two allied Tea Party organizations, the Club for Growth and Heritage Action, for their strident opposition to Speaker Paul Ryan’s American Health Care Act (ACHA), which was aimed at repealing and replacing Obamacare. On Twitter, Trump stated that “Democrats are smiling in D.C. that the Freedom Caucus, with the help of Club For Growth and Heritage, have saved Planned Parenthood and OCare!”
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In the genre of film noir, the movie Laura (1944) looms large. In 1999, the Library of Congress chose the film for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant. The American Film Institute ranked Laura 73 on their 100 years…100 Thrills. As a film noir, it is ranked no. 4 on the best mysteries of all time. Despite the political orientation of its main stars, Dana Andrews (who was the lead in the radio series, I was a Communist for the FBI), and Gene Tierney (a Republican who campaigned for Nixon in…
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Terror threats from ANTIFA leftists have put next weekend’s Mid-Atlantic Liberty Festival in jeopardy. After left-libertarians released a call to arms vowing resistance, bomb threats were allegedly called in to the Hilton in Harrisburg, who were forced to cancel the event. “To me, it is horrifying that in the United States a fringe group can get away with its threats of violence, but such is the world in which we live,” event organizer Steve Scheetz said in a public Facebook post explaining the situation. The entire controversy arose after a debate was scheduled between former Libertarian Party Senate hopeful Augustus…
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The House Freedom Caucus scored a big political victory yesterday, as their fierce opposition to the American Health Care Act (AHCA) prevented the controversial legislation from even bring brought up for a vote on the floor. “I applaud House conservatives for keeping their word to the American people,” Senator Rand Paul said in a statement. In spite of legislating from a different chamber, Paul was in the corner of the House Freedom Caucus from the start urging members to stand strong and even giving them pointers from President Trump’s signature book The Art of the Deal in a well-received publicity…
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As with the Kennedy assassination documents still “classified” under “national security,” pundits have long believed that the sealed Nixon Watergate tapes contain the answers to historical mysteries; chief among them the true motive for the Watergate burglaries; whether Nixon ordered executive actions against foreign leaders (Camelot pundits have long blamed Nixon, and not JFK, for constructing a Mafia/CIA nexus to kill Castro). But they’ve also sought ammunition to confirm their worst impressions of Nixon as a paranoid, insecure totalitarian. On what’s available they zeroed in on the potty mouth (the biggest surprise for my Republican parents), the anti-Semitism, the enemies…
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With its patriotism and lone-man-against-the-system theme, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939) is a popular favorite among conservatives. But, although directed by conservative populist Frank Capra, the script was in actuality penned by a then-member of the Communist Party named Sidney Buchman. It is difficult to believe in our era of flag-burning and bomb-throwing leftism that once upon a time American Communists promoted patriotism, which depending upon your point of view, was either authentic or a pose to meet the needs of Moscow. But Buchman may have been the real deal, as evidenced by his clashes with director Frank Capra…
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Eighty-four years ago, the Marx Brother’s film, Duck Soup (1933), premiered and despite being considered their masterpiece today, flopped. Its anti-war, anti-establishment, anti-politician message (if there can be a message in a Marx Brothers’ film), flew against the zeitgeist. Leader-worship was in vogue in 33, from Mussolini’s Italy and Hitler’s Germany (both countries banned the film) to even FDR’s America. Satire and criticism, rampant in the 20s, which was really the Marx Brothers’ decade, was considered politically incorrect in “let’s pull together” ethos of New Deal America. Literally in Duck Soup, the Marx Brothers, un-plugged, un-policed, refuse to close ranks.…
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It would appear that higher education has become a Politically Correct caricature of itself. Yet for an increasing number of students, this is no laughing matter, for academia’s ceaseless drift toward the abyss of far-left ideology has been accompanied by an increase in threats of violence. College campuses in many places have become dangerous for certain kinds of students. Specifically, they have become dangerous for conservative students. The College Fix (TCF) is a student-run publication. It is also a national treasure. Its writers deserve praise for drawing the public’s attention to the outrages that pass for higher education today. Parents…
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Billionaire internationalist and philanthropist David Rockefeller died Monday at the age of 101. One of the most influential men of his time, Rockefeller had a direct hand in shaping global politics for many decades, but now his legacy looks very much uncertain. Rockefeller was the Chief Executive Officer of The Chase Manhattan Bank for many years and cultivated a vast fortune through international banking. He had an estimated value of $3 billion at the time of his passing. Additionally, he gave billions of his money to charitable causes that have endeared him to millions across the world. However, it is…
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In the Western world today, particularly in America, there persists this idea among both Christians and non-Christians alike that, to be a Christian, one must endorse a specific kind of vision of how societies should be organized politically. While it is true that few if any contemporary Christians endorse a theocracy, and while it is true that few advocate on behalf of anything approximating a utopian politics, it is no less true that a good number, and possibly most, Western Christians are political perfectionists.
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After ISIS took credit for a knife and vehicle attack in Britain killing four innocent people on Wednesday, London mayor Sadiq Khan offered words of sympathy, but critics are focusing their ire on a controversial statement that he made last year about terror attacks being ‘part and parcel of living in a big city.’ The attack was allegedly committed by Khalid Masood, a UK native with a criminal record called by ISIS to be “a soldier of the Islamic State.” Police believe Masood’s killing spree was an act of terrorism, according to an ABC News report. In a post-attack statement,…
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One of the oldest sayings is that there are “no atheists in foxholes.” But for those soldiers either wounded or hit with the body parts of their exploding friends, the more apt expressions were caught by Paul Fussell, forty-percent disabled World War II vet and the most articulate historian of war. Before combat, Fussell catches the mindset of the virgin soldier: “It can’t happen to me. I’m too clever/agile/well-trained/good-looking/beloved/tightly laced etc.” Then after combat, the realization hits: “It is going to happen to me, and only my not being there is going to prevent it.” Kurt Vonnegut, definitely “there,” amazingly,…
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Gun rights are one of the most defining issues for many conservatives. It isn’t my top issue, due to my devotion to the First Amendment; but, the Second Amendment rights to many are even more sacred than their right to freely speak, practice their faith, and slam politicians. Nevertheless, the way you perceive your gun rights links back to one basic principal: human’s natural survival instinct.
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During his lifetime, British writer George Orwell was characterized as a follower of exiled Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky. H.G Welles dismissed Orwell as “a Trotskyite with big feet.” On a more lethal note, the Spanish secret police, on orders from Moscow, hunted Orwell during the Spanish Civil War for the crime of”Trotskyism” because he fought in a Marxist military unit at odds with Stalin. His “Trotskyism” even affected his livelihood; Orwell’s submission of Animal Farm to the publisher Faber and Faber was rejected by poet and employee T.S. Eliot for expressing “Trotskyite” views. At first glance, the literary evidence seems to…
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The Liberty Conservative is an online political magazine devoted to the vision of less government and more liberty in achieving true prosperity for all. We intend to accomplish this by informing and educating our readers on our core principles of free markets, limited government, traditional values, and personal freedom.

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